King County prosecutor: felony referrals down; gun-violence indicators improving but juvenile shootings a concern

King County Prosecuting Attorney Lisa Manion told the Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee on July 22 that “the overarching trends are encouraging. Overall, felony crime is decreasing in Seattle,” while stressing that the county is not declaring victory and more work remains.

Manion said adult felony referrals in Seattle fell 36.7% from 2019 to 2024 — from 3,925 referrals in 2019 to 2,485 in 2024 — and she reported a 25.3% drop in adult felony referrals across King County over the same period. She said first-quarter 2025 data show significant year-over-year decreases in gun violence across the county: a 35% drop in fatal shooting victims, a 36% drop in nonfatal shooting victims and a 32% drop in total shots-fired incidents compared with the same quarter in 2024.

Why it matters: The county’s prosecuting office said the declines reflect coordinated work with municipal prosecutors, police and community partners, and that the trends provide “a glimmer of hope” but not a full recovery. Manion emphasized partnerships across jurisdictions and investments in both enforcement and prevention.

Manion described several operational and policy priorities. She said King County has strengthened efforts to solve nonfatal shootings, expanded work to identify people “close to gun violence” for prevention and wraparound services (a pilot in Kent was cited as an example), and assigned a deputy prosecutor to coordinate gun-violence policy and case referrals. She also said the office has focused on victims’ services and that funding dedicated to crime victims has decreased substantially: “These funds have decreased by 90% since 2017,” she said while describing unsuccessful 2025 testimony in support of two bills to stabilize statewide funding (identified in the briefing as Senate Bill 5362 and House Bill 1487).

Manion said the office secured a statutory change to the state hate-crime law to close a “loophole” and make motivation-based prosecutions clearer for juries, and that her office launched a statewide listening tour focused on involuntary treatment and mental-health interventions. She said the office also is piloting juvenile extreme risk protection orders — a civil tool intended to remove firearm access from juveniles in appropriate cases — and a Safer Schools initiative that coordinates prosecutors with school officials to plan safe returns for students who intersect with the juvenile legal system.

On juvenile crime, Manion said overall juvenile filings have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels and that so far in 2025 the office has filed about 500 juvenile cases. She warned that the proportion of young people whose first contact with the legal system involves a serious violent crime has increased and told councilmembers the office is looking for prevention and early-intervention partners.

Councilmembers asked where unreported crime fits into these trends; Manion said the office tracks law-enforcement referrals and cannot directly measure unreported crime. Multiple councilmembers also pressed for more detail on how technology (license-plate readers, CCTV, a real-time crime center) and additional police hires are affecting solvability; Manion said video and other digital evidence often help deputies and prosecutors analyze crime scenes “frame by frame” and support filings.

Manion repeatedly framed the trends as the product of cross-jurisdictional coordination: “It is important to trade notes on addressing root causes,” she told the committee, describing partnerships with municipal prosecutors, the Seattle City Attorney’s Office and police departments across King County.

The office cited changes in case volumes across categories (adult burglaries, serious assaults, domestic-violence referrals and vehicle-theft referrals) and repeated that the pandemic years (2020–2022) were peak years for many referral types. Manion urged continued investment in victims’ services and mental-health supports and said she will continue to pursue legislative changes in Olympia.

Manion closed by asking for sustained partnership with the city and said the county will continue regularly pushing data to the public and to elected officials: the prosecuting office publishes a public-facing dashboard and monthly reports on gun-violence filings and precinct-level incidents, she said.

Looking ahead: Manion said her office will continue the Safer Schools pilot, the juvenile ERPO pilot, the statewide ITA listening tour and legislative advocacy to restore victims’ funding. She asked city leaders to help press for both resources and policy changes at the state level where necessary.